ARTICLES ABOUT DANCE BY DATE - PAGE 4

THE COURT has spoken: There shall not be taxation with gyration. Ruling from the bench after a brief hearing, Common Pleas Judge Ellen Ceisler yesterday morning rejected the city's attempt to impose a tax on lap dances in strip clubs. Mayor Nutter's administration was appealing a decision by the Nutter-appointed Tax Review Board, which said the city's applying the amusement tax - 5 percent on admission charges - to lap dances at certain strip clubs was inappropriate. Ceisler sided with lawyers for the strip joints, who argued that they already pay the amusement tax on cover charges, that "interior activities" are not subject to the tax and that the city was applying the tax inconsistently.

Gwen Resch has two families. Yes, the 14-year-old from Linwood, N.J., has a mother, father, and older brother. But she also has her "dance family," a far-reaching network of friends from across the region who share her passion for Irish dancing. "When you go to dance, that's a part of the experience," Resch said of constantly reconnecting with her dancing friends. "My favorite part. " While Resch sees most of her local dance mates three or four times a week, when they practice at the Emerald Isle Academy of Irish Dance, she was going to be part of a wider ensemble Saturday.

Last winter, a caravan of canoeists headed up the Schuylkill, paddling against the current and the chill to discuss plans for Invisible River , an arts event planned for this weekend. "Everyone was getting really excited, saying how we should put lights on the bridge, or imagining dancers in the shallows of the water and a flotilla of boats, with a music barge floating along. We were all letting our imaginations run wild," recalled choreographer Olivia Jorgensen, who was visited by a vision of dancers performing summer-solstice rituals on the banks.

Dancing youth are still giving show-stopping performances at the Merriam Theater this weekend in Debbie Allen Dance Academy's production of Brothers of the Knight . The play is written and choreographed by Oscar- and Tony-winner Allen. The musical is adapted from the Brothers Grimm tale "The Twelve Dancing Princesses. " The story focuses on a Harlem pastor named Rev. Knight who is the father of 12 boys. Knight is searching to solve the mystery of his sons' torn-up shoes. He hires a magical housekeeper named Sunday to solve the mystery.

In 1947, British rule of India ended with the partition of the country into India and Pakistan, a topic still close to the hearts of many people. Longing for an undivided India is the theme of the dance theater program Asunder , to be performed at the Painted Bride Friday and Saturday. Asunder was conceived and choreographed by Swarthmore professor Pallabi Chakravorty, who specializes in the anthropology of dance and studied Kathak and other classical and folk dance styles under renowned gurus such as Bandana Sen. The group she founded, Courtyard Dancers, will explore the nostalgia and grief for the loss of what once was, but never will be again - a united India . The dance portrays a desire for things to go back to the good old days.

Before her senior prom at Germantown Academy in April, Allison Moise had a fairly typical to-do list: Find the perfect dress, figure out what to do with her hair, and hit the tanning salon for some unseasonable bronze color - a school-dance ritual she has stuck to since she was 15 or 16 years old. But while nervous dates and inedible catered meals may never go away, pre-prom tanning is one tradition that could be on its way out in Pennsylvania....

BALLERINAS need vacations, too. (Incredibly well-deserved ones.) But as the big companies wind down their seasons, some innovators break out novel, refreshing programming to tide over us over during the beachgoing months. The Tap-Ballet Project, June 6. Six tap dancers and four ballet dancers, backed by a jazz quartet, thunder out the collaborative work "Meet Us at the Corner," created by Elisabeth Holowchuk (from Suzanne Farrell Ballet) and Dorothy Wasserman (as seen in the movie "Tap")

AN INSTRUMENTAL string arrangement of Coldplay's "Clocks" played through the room and Rachel Federman-Morales began directing the troupe of 10 dancers, as she has every Tuesday evening since early October. Aligned across from one another, the dancers' eyes locked. They had just completed a long school day and now they had one more rehearsal before the big performance, scheduled for this morning in Drexel University's Mandell Theater at MacAlister Hall. Like any dance troupe, this one is composed of unique individuals with a common goal.

Good vision in low light is essential to enjoying Alchemia , which Momix brought to the Annenberg Center last weekend. The gloam can hide the scraps and bits that would make the piece seem magical. But for those with healthy peepers, Alchemia is a brilliant journey into a surreal otherworld where earth, water, air, and fire - in the form of dancers, music, lighting, and props - do their thing. Moses Pendleton, choreographer of the "Doves of Peace" segment of the Sochi Olympics' opening ceremony, is the "Mo" in Momix.

'I'm such a nerd," said Julie Diana, a principal dancer with Pennsylvania Ballet, who recently saddened fans by announcing that she would retire after Sunday's performance of the ballet's "Director's Choice" program at the Academy of Music. Nerd is hardly the term that comes to mind. Diana is well known for her portrayals of the quintessentially romantic heroines in Romeo and Juliet and La Sylphide. She is also a versatile and exceptionally intelligent dancer who excels in sizzling, Broadway-style roles (as in Slaughter on Tenth Avenue )